Al-Barqānī (1) said: “Al-Dāraqutnī held a favorable view of Abū Ḥudhāfah and instructed me to include his narrations in al-Ṣaḥīḥ (2).”
Al-Khaṭīb related: “I have read, in al-Dāraqutnī’s own handwriting:
‘Aḥmad ibn Ismāʿīl Abū Ḥudhāfah is weak in ḥadīth; he was inattentive. He transmitted (al-Muwattaʾ) from Mālik correctly, but ḥadīths from Mālik that are not found in (al-Muwattaʾ) were inserted into his collection and he accepted them. Consequently, he is not to be taken as evidence (3).’
Al-Khaṭīb added: ‘He was not among those who deliberately fabricate falsehood (4).’
I say: Among the matters for which they took him to task is his narration from Mālik, from Nāfiʿ, from Ibn ʿUmar, traced back to the Prophet: “The cupper has broken his fast (5).”
With this same chain there is also the ḥadīth: “He gave judgment on the basis of an oath together with a single witness (6).”
Thus the isnād is composite, yet Abū Ḥudhāfah did not produce a spurious matn.
(1) The word is pronounced with an open b, a silent r, and an open q; the nisba refers to a village in the Khwarazm area. The person meant is the imam Abu Bakr Ahmad b. Muhammad b. Ahmad b. Ghalib al-Faqih, the traditionist and litterateur, who died in 425/1034. His full biography will appear in volume seventeen of this work.
(2) Al-Khatib al-Baghdadi, Tarikh Baghdad, 4:24; al-Mizzi, Tahdhib al-Kamal, vol. 17.
(3) Tarikh Baghdad, 4:24.
(4) Tarikh Baghdad, 4:24.
(5) Ibn ‘Adi also recorded it in al-Kamil (folio 174) with the chain: al-Hasan b. Abi Ja‘far → Ayyub → Nafi‘ → Ibn ‘Umar. He declared the report defective on account of al-Hasan, placed it among his rejected narrations, and said: “I know of no one else who transmits it in this form. In my view he does not deliberately lie, but he is prone to confusion and error.” Al-Haythami cites it in Majma‘ al-zawa’id, 3:169, attributing it to al-Tabarani in al-Awsat, and remarks: “In the chain is al-Hasan b. Abi Ja‘far al-Jufari; he is disputed, though some deemed him reliable.”
I add: The hadith is also reported from Thawban, Rafi‘ b. Khadij, Shaddad b. Aws, Abu Musa al-Ash‘ari, Ma‘qil b. Sinan, Usama b. Zayd, Bilal, ‘Ali, ‘A’isha, Abu Hurayra, Ibn ‘Abbas, and others. In its sound form it is authentic, but it has been abrogated. See Ibn al-Qayyim, Zad al-ma‘ad, 2:60; al-Zayla‘i, Nasb al-raya, 2:472, 477; Zawa’id al-Bazzar, 1:471, 478; Majma‘ al-zawa’id, 3:168, 170.
(6) The narration is weak with this particular chain, but a sound version from Ibn ‘Abbas is recorded by Muslim (no. 1712).